What Colors To Get From Dyeing Different Fabrics?

  • By: Tiffany Peris
  • Time to read: 6 min.

When one can’t get a T-shirt or another piece of clothing with a color that one wants, it’s okay to consider dyeing the clothing to get a fancy color. However, you might be unsure about the colors you will get once you have dyed your fabric. This article discusses the colors to expect when you dye your fabrics.

In addition, the article also offers some tips to ensure that you will effectively dye your clothes.

Colors you will get from dying clothes

What Is Dyeing?

Dyeing entails applying dyes on different textiles and hoping to get the desired color. However, if you don’t have prior dyeing experience, you need to understand the science of dyeing before you can dye your clothes.

Dyeing your clothes without understanding what you are doing can have different results as different dyes and fabrics have different results once they are dyed. For instance, when you dye a red fabric, you could get different shades of red.

The four factors that will affect your result when dyeing are; the duration of the fabric in the dye, the type of textile is dyed, and the color used.

Bleaching Your Textiles

If you do not want to dye your fabric but still want to change the fabric’s color, you can bleach the fabric.

In this case, the color of the factor will play a major role in determining the outcome of your breaching project.

To understand what to expect when you bleach different fabrics, I hereby explain how various colors change when they are bleached.

What Color Does Grey Turn When It’s Bleached?

When a grey fabric is bleached, the result will be pink.

However, if the bleached fabric is light grey, the result will be white.

What Color Does Blue Turn When Bleached?

When you bleach a blue textile, the nature of the blue color on the textile will determine what you will eventually end up getting. Specifically, the intensity of the blue on the textile will impact your outcome.

If you bleach dark blue and leave the textile on the bleach for a long time, you will get a red or pink color. The fabric’s length and the fabric’s duration on the bleach will also determine the outcome.

If the fabric dyed is blue in color, then do not be surprised when your fabric turns white.

What Color Does Pink Turn When Bleached?

When you bleach a pink fabric, you will get white color.

What Color Does Red Turn When It Is Bleached?

When you bleach red fabric, you will get pink. However, it’s important to note the time the fabric soak in bleach and the intensity of the red dye in the fabric will determine the intensity of red.

When you bleach a red fabric, you are going to get pink.

If the red in the fabric is not strong, you will get a light pink.

What Color Does Light Grey Turn When Bleached?

When you bleach light grey fabric, you will get white color on the fabric.

What Color Do White Turn To When Bleached?

You will not see any major changes when you bleach a white fabric since your fabric will remain white.

However, it is important to note that the bleached white fabric will appear to be whiter because the bleach has refreshed the fabric’s color.

For that reason, vests, T-shirts, and other white clothes that may have some stains are regularly bleached to restore their white color.

What Color Does Brown Turn To When It Is Bleached?

When you bleach a brown fabric, the result will be pink.

If you have a brown fabric and you are considering bleaching it, you need to consider whether you want the final color of the fabric to be pink. If that is not the case, you might be better off just stopping the bleaching.

What Color Does Orange Turn When Bleached?

When you bleach orange fabric, you will get a lighter orange color.

If you are not attentive, you might think that the bleach had no impact on the orange fabric.

However, if you look closely at the fabric, you will find that the orange in the bleached fabric is lighter than was the case.

Fabric color before bleachingFabric color after bleaching
OrangeLight orange
GreyPink
BlueRed or pink
PinkWhite
RedPink
Light greyWhite
WhiteWhite
BrownPink
Summary of what the colors turn to when bleached

What Is A Bleach?

Bleach is a laundry aid mainly used to remove stains from clothes and other fabrics. However, for the bleach to get rid of the stains, it gets rid of color in the fabrics during the bleaching process.

Specifically, once bleach comes into contact with the clothes, it triggers a chemical reaction that breaks down the stains and thus removes the stain in the clothes.

Over the years, there have only been two types of stains that people have to choose from when they want to remove stains from their clothes. These bleaches comprise oxygen bleach and chlorine bleach.

Oxygen bleach is commonly used when doing laundry since it has no impact on the color or patterns in the clothes hence the reason it is commonly classified as color-safe. However, you need to test it out since if your fabric is labeled ‘do not bleach,’ you cannot bleach that fabric.

Chlorine bleach is mainly supplied in liquid form even though the powdered form of the breach is also available. This bleach is mainly a mixture of water and sodium hypochlorite. Even though highly effective, the bleach cannot bleach all fabrics.

How Do I Use Bleach?

You can use chlorine bleach when you want to remove stains and bad smells on most white clothes. However, note that if other colored clothes are bleached with chlorine bleach, you will end up with ruined clothes since they will lose their color and look as if they have been burnt.

For non-white clothes, make sure you use oxygen bleach since it can remove any stains and freshen the clothes.

Alternatives To Bleach

Even if some items are used as bleaching alternatives, it is important to note that these items are not as effective as the actual bleach.

One of the alternatives to bleach is lemon juice. However, to bleach your clothes with lemon juice, you should only use it on white clothes. The juice should be applied to the stains and left on the clothes for a while to have the same impact as bleach.

Another alternative to bleach is vinegar. You can use white vinegar to remove stains in clothes and, at the same time, refresh them.

The third bleach alternative is hydrogen peroxide, which can substitute for oxygen bleach.

Can I Mix Vinegar And Bleach?

You might think that since vinegar can be a bleach substitute, I should mix the two to make a stronger bleach – DON’T TRY!

You should never mix vinegar and bleach since if the two are mixed, you will have chlorine gas which can have devastating impacts on those inhaling it.

Chlorine gas is known to have a smell similar to bleach, and when exposed to human beings, one starts to experience skin and eye irritation. Moreover, breathing the gas can negatively impact the respiratory system.

Can I Bleach All Fabrics?

No, not all fabrics can be bleached. If you check the manufacturer’s label on your fabric and find the label states ‘do not bleach’ or ‘non-fast color,’ you should not bleach that fabric.

Some of the common fabrics that you should never bleach are; wool, leather, silk, mohair, and spandex.

Final Thought

Dyeing and bleaching are two different processes and should never be confused with each other. I have listed the different colors you will get when you bleach your fabrics. I hope you are now going to get your desired color. If you want to fade your clothes, you can also bleach the clothes with the sun.